Jesus said that unless a grain of wheat goes into the tomb, unless it dies and is buried, it remains alone. In other words, the way God multiplies is by death. From the very beginning this is so. God multiplied Adam by laying him down in deathlike sleep and fashioning a woman from his rib.
We don’t know what it would have been like without sin, but in this fallen world it continues this way: the woman lies down in the death of childbirth, the man puts his body on the line every Monday morning when he goes out to turn his time and sweat into the means of his family’s provision, the two of them together died to their unbridled freedom when they bound themselves in covenant marriage to the other, and they bury themselves in dishes and laundry and sick youngsters and leaky pipes and sleepless nights. These are the means by which God has ordained us to be fruitful and multiply. We die and die and die. And if we did not, we would remain alone. But in God’s great wisdom, He multiplies by means of our death.
This was true of Adam, it is true of every family, and it is far truer of Christ.
None of us really know what we’re getting into, but Jesus did. He stretched out his hands willingly to receive the Roman nails. He was the only crucifixion victim ever who wasn’t powerless, who stayed voluntarily. No one took his life from him, but he laid it down willingly. He gave up his spirit, his side was pierced as Adam’s was, and he went into the ground like a seed.
And when he rose again on Easter morning, he rose triumphant with a host of captives in his train. He rose again in order to give life abundant, life eternal to an uncountable number of saints. God multiplied by Christ’s death.
If you love your life, you will lose it. But if you hate your life in this world for the sake of loving God and neighbor, then God will raise you up as he raised Jesus. The temptation is to cling to our lives, to selfishly carve out a little bit for us. But that’s just hewing out broken cisterns, it’s putting water in a sieve. The way to save your life is follow Christ’s example, and to lose it.
Joshua Edgren – March 31, 2024
